An impossible impeachment

Finally after a long wait, Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro has been appointed as the new chief justice by President Rodrigo Duterte, as confirmed by Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) member Menardo Guevarra who said, “I have been informed that the President’s choice has been publicly announced by Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go and that the formal appointment will be released by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Tuesday.” That is today.

For his part, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said, “Bravo! Best choice for Chief Justice! De Castro has proven competence and is a known nationalist and a streak of being a judicial activist.” But apparently there’s one problem with de Castro who would end her term as Chief Justice in less than two months as she will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 years old on Oct. 8. This means that she will be serving a very short term of office as Chief Justice.

It just makes you wonder why Pres. Duterte approved her appointment. Of course, she is technically the first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because ousted Ma. Lourdes Sereno wasn’t considered a Chief Justice at all after her quo warranto case was upheld. De Castro was chosen as the next chief justice over Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin, the two other younger associate justices whose names were also on the JBC’s shortlist submitted to Duterte last Friday. De Castro was the second most Senior in the Associate Justice next to Justice Antonio Carpio who refused to accept the nomination as Chief Justice for the sake of delicadeza.

Certain sources said that de Castro was chosen as Chief Justice in order to give her a chance to serve until her retirement and that Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin would take over after her mandatory retirement as Chief Justice. Well, this is some kind of speculation by certain administration sources, which cannot be verified. But for sure, we will be waiting for a new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in a couple of months. So in the meantime, let things go and we’ll cross the bridge when we reach it.

Before we leave this issue, just a little reminder for our readers that De Castro was one of the three Sandiganbayan justices who convicted ousted President and incumbent Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada of plunder in 2007, after which, she was appointed by then president and incumbent Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the SC.

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Just when you thought that things have already stabilized in the Judiciary now that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte has already appointed Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro as the next Chief Justice, hard core oppositionist Rep. Gary Alejano went out of his way to file impeachment charges against seven associate justices of the Supreme Court, starting with newly appointed Chief Justice Teresita de Castro, and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Andres Reyes, Francis Jardeleza, Noel Tijam and Alexander Gesmundo.

Of course, I don’t believe that Rep. Alejano would be able to gather enough votes to bring this case for trial in the Senate. But Rep. Alejano said that he filed this impeachment charges against the associate justices because of apparent disunity among the coalition forces in the majority party. He cited the sudden removal of House Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez as proof of this disunity in the majority party. Of course while his logic is correct along that line, however he did not realize that the supposed disunity among the majority party mates did not mean that they no longer support Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. This is an impossible impeachment case!

When I read a news report that Rep. Alejano said that removing the seven Justices would actually favor Duterte as it allow him to choose the people that he wants, this gives you an idea of how the mind of Rep. Alejano works in such a twisted way! After this case is thrown out of the Legislature, only then can things begin to normalize in the Judiciary.

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You folks who complained that the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) was so full of exasperated passengers when that Xiamen Airlines Boeing 737 crash-landed in the main runway of the NAIA… should not complain so much. Tourism in this country is brisk business these days that last Saturday, I took the Ocean Jet fast craft from the Port of Cebu to Tagbilaran and wow!, the Port of Cebu was like the airport in NAIA with passengers filling up every available inch of the terminal. Call it proof of the success of Bohol’s tourism legacy given by the late Anos Fonacier, but I do recall the times when travel to Bohol was so leisurely and less stressful than what I saw last Saturday morning.

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